Cicero, Clay and village of North Syracuse sued for age discrimination of volunteer firefighters

Syracuse, NY -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Tuesday that they are suing the towns of Cicero and Clay, the village of North Syracuse and four volunteer fire departments for discriminating against older firefighters.

The EEOC, a federal agency, said the lawsuit was filed because the municipalities and fire departments refused to let volunteer firefighters, who are 60 or 62 years old, depending on the department, accrue credit toward a pension program.

The fire departments named in the lawsuit are North Syracuse, Cicero, Clay and Moyers Corners.

Under state law, the length of service award program allows volunteer firefighters to earn a pension by taking part in an awards system that gives points for training, responding regularly to emergency calls and other duties.

A firefighter must earn 50 points a year to make that year a qualifying year. When a firefighter reaches the designated retirement age, between 55 and 65 years old depending on the department, the number of qualifying years are used in a formula to determine a person’s pension. The state law was passed in 1989 and local departments and municipal boards accepted the program in the early 1990s.

“The program was designed to recruit and retain volunteers,” said Clay Town Supervisor Damian Ulatowski.

Under the original 1989 legislation, volunteers who reached the designated retirement age would no longer be able to accrue points and therefore would not be able to increase the amount of their pension, despite still volunteering. In 2003, the state amended the law to allow volunteers older than the retirement age to accrue points, but the amendment did not require fire departments to change policies that were already in place.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, the departments listed refused to let volunteer firefighters who reached the designated retirement age to accrue more credits at some point since 1989.

Michael J. O’Brien, a senior trial attorney in the EEOC’s New York District Office, said this does not violate the state law, but it does violate the Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, a federal law. A violation occurs when an employer prevents employees aged 40 or older from obtaining benefits based on age.

"These firefighters, who volunteer to help people when they are in need, are entitled to benefits based on their service, without regard to age or when they were earned,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said each of the fire departments listed in the lawsuit have volunteers older than the designated retirement age who are owed lost or back benefits.

The towns of Clay and Cicero recently passed resolutions to try to resolve any issues of back benefits for volunteer firefighters.

Jim Perrin, fire commissioner with Cicero Fire District, said the Cicero Fire Department started to allow volunteers over the age of 62 to accrue points in 2008 and is currently trying to pay back benefits for volunteers who are owed benefits from 2003 to 2008.

“We didn’t do anything on purpose,” Perrin said. “We want these volunteers to receive the benefits they earned.”

The EEOC is seeking a lost pension credit and an appropriate service award plus interest, and other monetary restitution, including an award equal to the service award, as liquidated damages, for affected firefighters.

Ulatowski, Perrin and Cicero Town Supervisor Jim Corl said they have not seen the lawsuit yet.

“We are all volunteers,” Perrin said. “You don’t get pay, you’re away from your families, this program is just a little bit of a benefit and we are not trying to keep that away from anyone.”